Competition Rules

AYSO "Everyone Plays" Guidelines

One of the basic philosophies of AYSO is that Everyone Plays. Our region adheres to the following guidelines in order to support that philosophy.

The "3/4" Rule

While AYSO National mandates that each player must play at least half the game, Beverly Hills AYSO takes that a step further as we believe very strongly in the Everyone Plays Philosophy. So in our region, each player must play at least 3/4 of each game, except when that is mathematically impossible. Those exceptions are described below. The 3/4 rule applies to the entire season for our younger division (U6 - U8) and it applies to the "regular season" in our older divisions (U10 - U14).

The exceptions to the 3/4 Rule in the "regular season" are as follows:

10 Players Show Up For a U10 Game: In this case, it is impossible for all players to play 3/4 of the game. 2 players will play half the game, and 8 players will play 3/4 of the game. The 2 players selected to play half the game will play 3/4 of all subsequent games until every other player on the team has been selected to play half the game in those games where all 10 players show up.

15 Players Show Up For a U12-U14 Game: In this case, one player will be limited to playing half the game. This player must play at least 3/4 of every subsequent game until all other players have been selected to play only half the game.

Even in these exceptions, by adhering to our region's guildelines it will be very unusual for a player to play only half the game more than once during the "regular season". (at the very most, twice for U10).

During the playoff rounds for U10-U14, our region reverts to the National policy which states that every player must play at least one half of every game.

Goalkeepers

To ensure that all younger players get plenty of opportunities to play as a field player, our region limits the amount of time a player may play in goal during the "regular season". For U10 and U12, a player may play in goal for at most 2 quarters in a single game during the regular season. Once the playoff rounds begin, this restriction is lifted. In our U14 divisons, there is no restriction on the number quarters a player may play in goal. However, coaches are strongly encouraged to rotate players in goal unless a player is uniquely suited to that position and truly wants to play more than 2 quarters in goal.